The United States is the largest economic and military force in the world. The world’s oldest democracy also happens to be one of the most religious western democracies in the world. According to the American Religious Identification Survey, nearly 80% of the country identifies itself as Christian with 36% saying they attend services at least once a week or more. The United States also happens to be a country that has no Official Religion and is made up of a wide variety of affiliations. For our purposes, we’ll look into how the country reacts to three different groups: Muslims, Atheists, and Christians.
To understand the following information, certain things need to be cover. The most common method of measuring central tendency is mean. Mathematically, the mean is the average of a given set of values. Another method is median. Median is the middle of an observation, or it is the number that has an equal number of values greater and less than it. The third method is mode, which is simply finding the number that appears more than any other. This can be achieved by simply counting the data.
The first set of data will be represented by boxplots. In order to truly appreciate what the data is conveying, you must first understand what a boxplot is and what it all means. The max and min of a box plot are the highest and lowest values, respectively. Outliers are numbers that far exceed either the min or the max. The actual box represents the values that fall into the 25%-75% tiles. The black line in the middle shows the median. So, let’s look at some boxplots of the data.
This graph clearly shows that Christians possess an overwhelmingly favorability in the United States. This is to be expected considering that the country is 80% Christian. Summary of Christians Min. 1st Qu. Median Mean 3rd Qu. Max. NA's 0.00 60.00 85.00 78.55 100.00 100.00 253
The Summary shows us that the average(mean) favorability of Christians is 78.55 and that the Median, or middle value, is 85.
This graph shows that, quite clearly, that Muslims do not possess the same amount of favorability as Christians do. This, of course, isn’t exactly shocking considering recent history. Summary of Muslims Min. 1st Qu. Median Mean 3rd Qu. Max. NA's 0.00 48.75 50.00 51.79 60.00 100.00 350
As you can see, the average favorability for Muslims are 51.79 and it was 78.55 for Christians. The median was 85 for Christians, but 50 for Muslims. Another interesting thing to point out is that nearly 100 more people chose to not answer their opinion on Muslims than they did Christians.
This graph shows that in America, Atheists are not as liked as Muslims are. Atheism being disliked so greatly could have a powerful effect on the country as a whole is the focal point of numerous researches. Let’s look at the numbers. Summary of Atheists Min. 1st Qu. Median Mean 3rd Qu. Max. NA's 0.00 15.00 50.00 39.95 50.00 100.00 353
From looking at the number, we see that the Median is still the same as it is with Muslims; however, the mean is 39.95 as compared to 51.79 to Muslims and 85 to Christians.
So, let’s start comparing certain factors and see what, if any, correlation exists between these three groups within the United States. First though, what is a correlation? Correlation is a number between -1 and 1 that attempts to try and find a relationship between two sets of values. The closer this number is to zero, the weaker and weaker the correlation is. If the number is closer to 1, then it is a positive correlation meaning that the values move in the same direction. If the number is closer to -1, then it is a negative correlation meaning that the values move in the opposite direction.
This first graph compares the favorability of Christians to the favorability of Muslims. The numerical correlation is: 0.1068496. This number is very close to zero and in being so, it suggests that almost no correlation exists between favorability of Muslims and Christians. By looking at the graph you can pick this out, generally, as favorability to Christians increases, favorability of Muslims begins to decrease up until he end where there is a huge boost in favorability of Muslims.
Here, we can see that as favorability of Christians increases, the favorability of Atheists declines, except for the end. The numerical correlation of this is: -0.2255886. This number is still close to zero, but nowhere near as close as Muslims/Christians. The graph is almost more defined. From this, we can suggest that the more an individual favors Christianity, the less appealing they find atheism.
This graph has a numerical correlation of: 0.400136. This is by far the greatest correlation we’ve seen thus far. This means that generally, the more favorable someone sees Muslims, the more favorable they see Atheists as well. These two groups have little in common, so what could be the cause? Is it that they’re both minorities in America? Is it that Atheists don’t have a strong attachment to any religion? These are all interesting questions to be asked.
Finally, let’s look at the correlation of age to atheism. The numerical correlation here is: -0.1380119, a fairly weak negative correlation. However, it does prove that generally, the younger a person is, the more favorably they see Atheism. This supports claims that atheism is on the rise as more and more young people are coming about.
To understand the following information, certain things need to be cover. The most common method of measuring central tendency is mean. Mathematically, the mean is the average of a given set of values. Another method is median. Median is the middle of an observation, or it is the number that has an equal number of values greater and less than it. The third method is mode, which is simply finding the number that appears more than any other. This can be achieved by simply counting the data.
The first set of data will be represented by boxplots. In order to truly appreciate what the data is conveying, you must first understand what a boxplot is and what it all means.
The max and min of a box plot are the highest and lowest values, respectively. Outliers are numbers that far exceed either the min or the max. The actual box represents the values that fall into the 25%-75% tiles. The black line in the middle shows the median. So, let’s look at some boxplots of the data.
This graph clearly shows that Christians possess an overwhelmingly favorability in the United States. This is to be expected considering that the country is 80% Christian.
Summary of Christians
Min. 1st Qu. Median Mean 3rd Qu. Max. NA's
0.00 60.00 85.00 78.55 100.00 100.00 253
The Summary shows us that the average(mean) favorability of Christians is 78.55 and that the Median, or middle value, is 85.
This graph shows that, quite clearly, that Muslims do not possess the same amount of favorability as Christians do. This, of course, isn’t exactly shocking considering recent history.
Summary of Muslims
Min. 1st Qu. Median Mean 3rd Qu. Max. NA's
0.00 48.75 50.00 51.79 60.00 100.00 350
As you can see, the average favorability for Muslims are 51.79 and it was 78.55 for Christians. The median was 85 for Christians, but 50 for Muslims. Another interesting thing to point out is that nearly 100 more people chose to not answer their opinion on Muslims than they did Christians.
This graph shows that in America, Atheists are not as liked as Muslims are. Atheism being disliked so greatly could have a powerful effect on the country as a whole is the focal point of numerous researches. Let’s look at the numbers.
Summary of Atheists
Min. 1st Qu. Median Mean 3rd Qu. Max. NA's
0.00 15.00 50.00 39.95 50.00 100.00 353
From looking at the number, we see that the Median is still the same as it is with Muslims; however, the mean is 39.95 as compared to 51.79 to Muslims and 85 to Christians.
So, let’s start comparing certain factors and see what, if any, correlation exists between these three groups within the United States. First though, what is a correlation? Correlation is a number between -1 and 1 that attempts to try and find a relationship between two sets of values. The closer this number is to zero, the weaker and weaker the correlation is. If the number is closer to 1, then it is a positive correlation meaning that the values move in the same direction. If the number is closer to -1, then it is a negative correlation meaning that the values move in the opposite direction.
This first graph compares the favorability of Christians to the favorability of Muslims. The numerical correlation is: 0.1068496. This number is very close to zero and in being so, it suggests that almost no correlation exists between favorability of Muslims and Christians. By looking at the graph you can pick this out, generally, as favorability to Christians increases, favorability of Muslims begins to decrease up until he end where there is a huge boost in favorability of Muslims.
Here, we can see that as favorability of Christians increases, the favorability of Atheists declines, except for the end. The numerical correlation of this is: -0.2255886. This number is still close to zero, but nowhere near as close as Muslims/Christians. The graph is almost more defined. From this, we can suggest that the more an individual favors Christianity, the less appealing they find atheism.
This graph has a numerical correlation of: 0.400136. This is by far the greatest correlation we’ve seen thus far. This means that generally, the more favorable someone sees Muslims, the more favorable they see Atheists as well. These two groups have little in common, so what could be the cause? Is it that they’re both minorities in America? Is it that Atheists don’t have a strong attachment to any religion? These are all interesting questions to be asked.
Finally, let’s look at the correlation of age to atheism. The numerical correlation here is: -0.1380119, a fairly weak negative correlation. However, it does prove that generally, the younger a person is, the more favorably they see Atheism. This supports claims that atheism is on the rise as more and more young people are coming about.
Very good, and put together quite nicely.
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